RIVER NORTH — A ride to the airport is one thing, but would you trust a phone app to find a sitter for your child?
The folks at Chime sure hope so.
Chime joins the stampede of Uberlike apps for everything from dog walkers to boats, providing almost instant access to available nearby baby-sitters. Appointments can be booked with an hour's notice, and users can peruse profiles of available sitters.
Profiles include photos of the sitters, expected cost of care, ratings, experience and age. Parents also can see whether the sitter is certified in CPR or first aid and whether Chime has completed a background check.
Videos on each profile give sitters a chance to introduce themselves — virtually, at least.
Reporter Ariel Cheung thinks she wasn't making enough when she was babysitting.
In Chicago, the service is $14 per hour, with an extra dollar per hour for each additional child. Sitters keep 90 percent.
But is it safe?
"With any child care service, there's going to be a trust hurdle. Before you leave your child with some stranger, you ultimately have to get over that trust hurdle," said Jeremy Gottschalk, a Lakeview attorney who helped launch Chime.
Chime's vetting process is selective, Gottschalk said; only 20 percent of applicants make the cut. Sitters are culled from 5 million child care providers listed on Chime's sister site, SitterCity, which launched in River North in 2001.
The Chicago-based Chime app lets parents find baby-sitters nearby that can be booked almost instantly. [Screenshots/Chime]
The best of SitterCity are invited to apply, then go through enhanced background checks, social media screens and Internet searches. Many are teachers, nannies or nurses — others are graduate students in related fields, Gottschalk said.
Parents can also arrange a meet-and-greet before a session to get to know a potential sitter.
Parents use of the app varies, Gottschalk said. Some save it for emergencies, while others rely on it to add to their bench of regular sitters. About 70 percent of parents who give Chime a try use it again, Gottschalk said.
Chime has a couple thousand sitters now working in Chicago, New York, Boston and Washington, D.C.
"We're providing really high-quality child care providers who are fully screened and vetted, [and] we're actually able to grow at scale, which is kind of unique," Gottschalk said.
As the father of a 6-year-old girl and a pediatric lawyer, Gottschalk said he knows that instinct, "that feeling you get when you leave your child with somebody."
"You've got to dig to your core to determine if they're going to be a good fit," he said. "That's something I would argue is biological. It's something you can't learn."
Having that perspective helped his team know how important it was to have reliable sitters for Chime to succeed.
"You really need that parent lens to do it right," he said. "It's essential."
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